Broncbusters fall at home to Butler

Garden City, KS-It was another slow start for Garden City.  

Russell Branch finished with 24 points, AJ Pierre-Jerome had 18, and fifth-ranked Butler topped Garden City, 90-83 Saturday night at Conestoga Arena.  

Antonio Chol scored 21 points in 36 minutes for Garden City, which fell to 7-8 overall and 2-7 in conference. Emmanuel Manyuon tallied 17 of his 19 points in the second half, and Josiah Sabino added 13.  

Branch's coast-to-coast layup put the Grizzlies up 13-3 four minutes into the game, forcing interim coach, Isaiah Tisdale to call timeout. Following the stoppage, Branch hit a 3-pointer, Devin Kerr easily got to the rim, and Pierre-Jerome put an exclamation mark on a runout dunk to give Butler a 25-12 advantage. 

After another Garden City timeout, Bubba Leavell hit a driving layup, Branch knocked down a triple and two free throws, and Butler had its biggest lead of the night, 40-17 with 6:03 left in the half. It was 49-30 at the intermission.  

Not much changed early in the second period following Kaeson Fisher Brown's jumper that put the visitors up by 20. 

But trailing by 18 with less than 13 minutes to go, Tisdale's bunch crawled back into it on the heels of a 16-6 run that trimmed the deficit to five following two Dasean Lewis free throws that made it 73-68. But that's as close as Garden City got the rest of the way as the Grizzlies answered with an 13-6 surge to stretch the lead back to 12.  

The Broncbusters were outrebounded, 37-30 and shot just 37 percent from the floor including 7-of-25 (28 percent) from 3.